Two-semester Course Research Articles

Pharmacy Students' Perceived Ability to Implement the Pharmacist's Patient Care Process before and after a Redesigned Case Study Series in the United States.

Since the incorporation of the Pharmacist's Patient Care Process (PPCP) into the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy standards, the process has been integrated in a variety of ways across curriculums. A two-semester case-based course was redesigned as a four-semester case-based course formally integrating the PPCP. Pharmacy students completing the original, two-semester course series and those completing the first two semesters of the redesigned course were given a voluntary survey to assess their perceived ability to integrate the PPCP into practice after the completion of each course. A total of 107 pharmacy students, 61 students completing the original series and 46 students completing two semesters of the redesigned series, completed the survey. The pharmacy students completing the redesigned, four-semester course series had a significantly higher perception of their ability to integrate the PPCP into patient care compared to the students completing the original series. This included the perceived ability to ask appropriate questions, identify medication-related problems (MRPs), document MRPs, and develop a plan for addressing MRPs. A significant difference was found in the students' perceived ability to ask pertinent questions in an appropriate manner, identifying and documenting MRPs, managing and solving MRPs, and documenting patient interactions. No significant difference was identified regarding the students' perceived ability to document the interaction or ensure that treatment-related plans were implemented. The students' perception regarding the importance of asking pertinent questions, identifying MRPs, and documentation in patient care did not differ between the cohorts. The case-based course series redesigned from two to four semesters with formal integration of the PPCP resulted in an increase in the students' perceptions of their ability to integrate the PPCP into patient care.

Enhancing educational research pedagogy: Integrating in-house peer review in a flipped/hybrid classroom environment

This paper introduces a novel approach to teaching educational research—a two-semester course employing an in-house peer review approach within a flipped/hybrid learning environment. The study engaged 21 pre-service mathematics teachers enrolled in the Research in Mathematics Education course. Employing a concurrent triangulation mixed methods design, quantitative analysis from peer review ratings was triangulated with quantitative data from focused group discussions. Results showed that the in-house peer review feedback provided significant improvement to both Research 1 proposals and Research 2 full articles, from initial drafts to final versions. The findings highlight the efficacy of the in-house peer review approach in enhancing student research outputs within the course activities. The hybrid classroom format fosters in-depth research discussions during consultations. Complementing these interactions, the flipped classroom approach facilitated additional learning opportunities. The integration of qualitative and quantitative data enabled an understanding of the peer review process as a distinctive pedagogical approach in educational research courses. Policy directions aimed at further advancing these practices were delineated.

Teaching Research to Nursing and Midwifery students in Tanzania: A 10-Year Evaluation

Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, in Tanzania, moved from content-based teaching to a competency-based education approach in 2011. The overall goal of a research course at the School of Nursing was to inform and improve nursing care. Nursing research was taught as a two-semester course with individual research projects. An evaluation 10 years after introduction of the course was performed using descriptive statistics and graphs. Categorical comparisons were made using χ 2 tests. Baccalaureate students taught standard scientific methods were able to collect valuable data that could be used to support community health-care institutions, inform curriculum revision, and discover answers to simple nursing questions. Harnessing student talent is a cost-effective way to augment national research capacity, especially important in low- and middle-income countries. The knowledge gained can be used to improve teaching and health care, to increase the well-being of the national population and improve the nation’s health-care institutions.

Separated by spaces: Undergraduate students re-sort along attitude divides when choosing whether to learn in spaces designed for active learning

Institutions of higher education are seeking to support more active learning among faculty, and that support includes the creation of active learning spaces to support more student-centered course activities. However, incremental development of these learning spaces leads to a sorting of students between active and passive learning environments. This study collected repeat-measure data from undergraduate students enrolled in a two-semester course sequence to evaluate factors affecting student enrollment decisions and student attitudes toward learning. We integrated this combination of research tools using a QuantCrit analytic framework, which revealed student attitudes and decision-making processes that were generally stable over the study period for individuals, but very different when examining student enrollment groups over time. Limited access to active learning classrooms forced students to self-sort based on either their social networks or their attitudes toward learning. That, in turn, may create a marginalizing force that pushes out some students—most often women—from undergraduate programs.

Exploring First Semester Changes in Domain-Specific Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is a common aim for higher education students, often described as general competencies to be acquired through entire programs as well as domain-specific skills to be acquired within subjects. The aim of the study was to investigate whether statistics-specific critical thinking changed from the start of the first semester to the start of the second semester of a two-semester statistics course, where the curriculum contains learning objectives and assessment criteria related to critical thinking. The brief version of the Critical Thinking scale (CTh) from the Motivated Strategies of Learning Questionnaire addresses the core aspects of critical thinking common to three different definitions of critical thinking. Students rate item statements in relation to their statistics course using a frequency scale: 1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, and 5 = always. Participants were two consecutive year-cohorts of full-time Bachelor of Psychology students taking a two-semester long statistics course placed in the first two semesters. Data were collected in class with a paper-pencil survey 1 month into their first semester and again 1 month into the second. The study sample consisted of 336 students (ncohort 1 = 166, ncohort 2 = 170) at baseline, the follow-up was completed by 270 students with 165 students who could be matched to their baseline response. To investigate the measurement properties of the CTh scale, item analysis by the Rasch model was conducted on baseline data and subsequently on follow-up data. Change scores at the group level were calculated as the standardized effect size (ES) (i.e., the difference between baseline and follow-up scores relative to the standard deviation of the baseline scores). Data fitted Rasch models at baseline and follow-up. The targeting of the CTh scale to the student sample was excellent at both timepoints. Absolute individual changes on the CTh ranged from −5.3 to 5.1 points, thus showing large individual changes in critical thinking. The overall standardized effect was small and negative (−0.12), with some variation in student strata defined by, gender, age, perceived adequacy of math knowledge to learn statistics, and expectation to need statistics in future employment.

Learning to See Like a Medical Sociologist: Comparing One- Versus Two-Semester Fieldwork-Based Courses

Using observations from a medical sociology course offered in two formats, we compare how undergraduate premedical students learned to see sociologically after (1) completing a one-semester course in which theory in medical sociology and fieldwork were taught concurrently or (2) completing a two-semester course in which theory in medical sociology and fieldwork were taught in successive semesters. We developed a taxonomy of stages to capture students’ learning and measured their progress using video simulations that alternatively depicted scenarios in a more familiar setting (an academic hospital) and a less familiar one (a foreign cultural exchange). Students learned how to see in different ways: In the one-semester course, students came to see like medical sociologists, and in the two-semester course, students also came to see like sociologists more broadly. Educators interested in teaching students to “see more” outside of the health care realm may benefit from choosing the two-semester course option.

Exploring the Potentials of Performance-Centred Instructional Design in Online and Blended Learning: Students’ Perspectives

This study aims to clarify the potentials of performance-centred instructional design in online and blended learning. It asserts its contribution in that no research so far available has explicitly investigated how students—‘evaluatees’—evaluate the implemented course design with a 100% performance-based assessment (PA). The study consists of two parts: a comprehensive literature review on PAs, followed by a report on a survey to the students on performance-centred course experiences. The research was held in an undergraduate English programme at a Tokyo university. No test was conducted, and only performance-based evaluative methods were used throughout the two-semester course of one academic year. A survey was administered to the students after the course experience, obtaining 67 valid responses. AI research tools were also applied to the analyzes, to explore their future use. A high level of positivity toward the PA course design was obtained. Besides, the design succeeded in building students’ self-efficacy and helping them become more strategic in using the language. The perceived progress was also confirmed by an objective test held outside the current research. Furthermore, the students admitted some utility in test-based assessment, proving, on average, that the combinatory design of 75–85% PAs and 15–25% tests would be ideal. PA-centred course design has significant potential to deepen students’ learning. It provides an antithesis to a heavily test-centred teaching approach, which could limit students’ learning. It suggests that digital-based PAs be viable solutions, when meeting for tests is not feasible under emergencies, including worldwide pandemics.

It's Not Fair: Remote Students Report Feeling Disadvantaged in a Hybrid Clinical Physiology Course

Just as there was a transition to remote teaching because of the COVID pandemic, many universities are in the process of transitioning back to in person classrooms. Case in point, Clinical Physiology I is the first semester of a 5000 level two‐semester course that is offered as a flipped class. Even with the transition to fully online teaching in the Spring of 2020, the robust breakout room feature of the video teleconferencing software, Zoom, permitted small group work that occurs with the flipped to continue.As the fall 2021 semester approached, the University approved a return to in person classes, however several students emailed the course instructor (L.C. Anderson) expressing concern and asking if an online option would be available. Students completed a pre‐class survey in which they committed to attend class in person or remotely via zoom. The instructor continued the flipped classroom with some students in small groups in person and some students in zoom breakout rooms. The students scored lower than expected on the first exam. Traditionally, the average of the first exam is approximately 80%, however the Fall 2021 Exam 1 average was 70%. Of 40 students, 13 scored less than 70%; this statistic was concerning given that students must earn a 70% to pass the course. To address the difficulty of the exam and to make sure students had learned the material, the course instructor flagged 13 questions (of 40 test questions total) with questionable testing statistics. Student submitted reflective essays on three of the exam questions but could write about all 13 questions for extra credit. From the student writings, the instructor ascertained that 3 of the test questions were flawed and all students were given credit for those 3 questions. Post exam reflections and adjustments raised the course average to 85%.Sensing continued anxiety within class, the instructor surveyed the students. The survey results suggested that remote students were less satisfied with class and perceived that they, as a group, had done poorly on the exam. Remote students reported feeling unfairly disadvantaged by the flipped classroom model online and reported a lack of trust in their online group members. This led the instructor to ask the questions: 1) Did the remote students score worse than the in‐person students? 2) If there is a performance difference, are there other factors that could explain the difference? In‐person students answered an average of 29.9 + 4.8 questions (about 75%) correctly whereas remote students answered an average of 25.7 + 5.8 (about 64%) correctly which was significantly different (Student’s T test, p=0.015). There was no significant difference between the performance of males and females, however BIPOC students averaged 23.6 + 6.0 with white students averaging 29.7 + 4.5 (Student's T Test, p= 0.001). This difference was lessened but persisted after the exam correction. This was an alarming observation; furthermore, more BIPOC students were participating remotely. The instructor invited students to meet one on one to review exam 1, added office hours and used student feedback to adjust class activities. The class performance improved on exam 2; furthermore, there were no significant differences between 1) in person versus remote students, 2) male versus female students and 3) BIPOC versus white students.

Impact of Stress and Anxiety of Two-semester and Tri-semester on Saudi Students of English at Jazan University

This study examines the relationship and impact of stress and anxiety on the performance of the students of English at Jazan University in Saudi Arabia, who have attended two-semester and trimester courses. Data were collected from 100 students taught by the same teachers and supported with the same materials. Data were analyzed by One-way ANOVA repeated measure and Paired Sample t-test on SPSS. The result of the SPSS analysis shows a significant difference in the impact of stress and anxiety between the performance of two-semester and tri-semester students. Students who had less stress and anxiety performed better in the two-semester course than those who had more stress and anxiety in the tri-semester course. The result of the research helps the authority to decide whether there should be two semesters or tri-semesters in that particular university. Later on, it becomes and model in the decision-making of the educational system of Saudi Arabia. Every research is not beyond the limitation, so is not this study. The sample is not so large and sufficient to generalize, and when data were collected, it was during the pandemic time that added more stress on the students that might have an extra impact on the students’ performance. The originality of the research is testified and trustworthy as the research had been involved in teaching the designing of the tri-semester courses of the university. So, this research can work as a model for the educationists of Saudi Arabia to decide essential plans and programs in educational institutions. It can also help other researchers to work out this type of research.

Learning processes in anatomy and physiology: a qualitative description of how undergraduate students link actions and outcomes in a two-semester course sequence.

This qualitative study investigated processes used by undergraduate students over a course sequence in anatomy and physiology (A&P). Longitudinal data for each participant include weekly written reflections and interviews at the beginning, middle, and end of the two-semester sequence. The themes that emerged describe three variations of approach to learning the course content. In some cases, the focus was on completing tasks and actions without connecting those to a specific outcome. In other cases, the focus was on outcomes without specific references to what steps might lead to that outcome. A third approach explicitly linked tasks and actions to one or more of nine different outcomes, including both personal and course expectations. Two other themes emerged as salient in combination with the three approaches: self-identified shortcomings with their study approaches and affective responses to the course and content. Affective responses included both positive affect such as enjoyment or excitement and negative affect such as frustration or dislike. Understanding the approaches that students take to learning, combined with their affect and shortcomings in those approaches, can inform instructor decisions about course activities and resources that support specific learning outcomes. It also provides a foundational knowledge base for the development of context-specific instruments for quantifying student learning processes in A&P.

Simulation as Vicarious Learning in the BSW Classroom

ABSTRACT While direct client experience is the optimal environment for social work students to learn interviewing skills, vicarious learning, or learning through observing peers or an instructor in a simulated client encounter, also affords students the opportunity for personal growth and reflection. To explore students’ experiences of vicarious learning this study involved Year 4 BSW students who observed the course instructor conduct 10, 1-hour, live simulated client interviews over the period of a two-semester course. Data for this study included a course assignment on the simulated sessions, and written responses to reflection questions, following the last simulated session. Thematic analysis surfaced salient themes which included the following: 1) benefits of live simulation: application of theory to practice and authenticity; 2) challenges of live simulation: logistical and experiential concerns; 3) application of empathy and active listening; 4) focus of attention; 5) maintaining attention and self-awareness; 6) reactions to simulated sessions; and 7) improved theoretical understanding and application. The article offers implications for social work educators to maximize vicarious learning in the social work classroom.

The Effectiveness of WeCWI-Enabled Web-based Instructional Tool to Improve Writing Performance and Critical Thinking Level among Undergraduate Students

The complexity of the writing skill, low literacy skills, interlanguage errors, low language proficiency, lack of critical thinking, poor information literacy and second language (L2) writing anxiety, which is supported by the two-semester course performance analysis, result in the poor writing skill among one of the Malaysian universities' undergraduates.

Using Primary Sources to Improve Classroom Climate and Promote Shared Responsibility

ABSTRACT To address a deteriorating classroom climate at the midpoint of a two-semester course sequence, we employed a novel intervention: reading a research manuscript together with students as an invitation to legitimate peripheral participation in scholarly reflection on teaching and learning. This intervention resolved many student complaints about the structure and level of the course, and the manuscript’s discussion of the didactical contract helped students claim their share of responsibility for their own learning. We propose that reading research literature with students can be an effective tool for addressing classroom challenges, and recommend the didactical contract for promoting shared responsibility.

Stray Off Topic to Stay On Topic: Preserving Interaction and Team Morale in a Highly Collaborative Course while at a Distance

The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has prompted schools and universities to shift their teaching to virtual classrooms from one day to the other. As a unique example, we had to virtualize the second half of a two-semester course on human-centered innovation, which heavily relies on direct interaction with and among students in small groups. In going virtual, we found adapting assignments to be only the tip of the iceberg. Despite being familiar with the students, we faced challenges in preserving high levels of creative interaction and in surveying team morale and status. Reflecting on our experiences, we detail solutions related to the lack of creative interaction by fostering off-topic chit-chat and surveying team morale by introducing more explicit communication and seeking team consent. To help teachers adapt to virtual teaching, we discuss how our mitigation approaches, which we developed in an extreme setting that required close, creative collaboration, may apply to virtual teaching in general.

Assessing Veteran Student Impact on Academic Performance of Non-Veteran Students

Veteran students are highly regarded for their professionalism, maturity, and for setting the example both inside the classroom and out. This study discusses the positive, quantitative impact on the academic performance of non-veteran mechanical engineering students when veterans are in their classes. This paper will highlight the successful results of a yearlong study of junior-level students after the completion of a two-semester course sequence in control systems. These results show the influence veterans have and how their military experience can benefit non-military students in their pursuit of an engineering degree.

Stability and change in the achievement emotion profiles of university students

This study used latent transition analysis (LTA) to examine stability and change in the emotion profiles of university students during a two-semester course. Three positive emotions (i.e., hope, pride, and happiness) and five negative emotions (i.e., guilt, helplessness, anger, shame, and regret) derived from Weiner’s attribution theory of emotion (1985, 2007, 2018a, 2018b) were used to identify the emotion profiles of university students at the beginning (Time 1) and end (Time 2) of a two-semester course. We also examined changes in emotion profile memberships over time. Results showed 81% of participants remained in their Time 1 profiles at Time 2, with the majority classified in profiles defined by stable positive emotions or mixed emotions. ANCOVAs indicated that students in the stable positive emotion profile achieved better overall course performance than those with a stable mixed profile or a stable negative emotion profile. An ascending emotion transition profile (Time 1 mixed-to-Time 2 positive) performed better than a stable mixed emotion profile. The present findings extend our current understanding of multifaceted profiles of student emotion that can change over time.

Transformative Teams in Health Care

This paper describes social work pedagogy and outcomes in a multi-year longitudinal interprofessional education (IPE) course incorporating B.S.W, and M.S.S.W. students. Social work students participated in an IRB-approved mixed-method study designed to evaluate individual growth and identity transformation throughout the two-semester course. Students’ semi-structured reflection papers (n=113) were analyzed qualitatively to identify core themes. Students voluntarily completed Interprofessional Assessment Scale (IPAS) surveys, a measure of core competencies in interprofessional care, before and after the class (n=48). Social work students reported that they developed increased personal and interprofessional confidence, awareness of social work role in health care, increased social work skills and leadership to use their voice in interprofessional health care teams. All levels of social work students can and should be incorporated into IPE education. Social work educators and practitioners should continue to take leadership in IPE education at all levels of curriculum design and implementation.

The Uses and Limits of Archives in Decolonial Curricula

The Uses and Limits of Archives in Decolonial Curricula Deanna P. Koretsky (bio) I am fortunate to teach at an institution that encourages students to read against the grain of the imperialist white supremacist capitalist heteropatriarchal power structures that built, and that continue to inform, most Western academic disciplines.1 Spelman College, a historically Black college for women, emphasizes the critical study of what much of the Western academy still calls difference or otherness as an essential component of all students' education, regardless of personal background or intended course of study. In their first year at Spelman, all students take a two-semester course called African Diaspora and the World, which trains them to read their studies and their lives through the lenses of critical race theory, feminist theory, and African diaspora studies. By the time they step into my classroom, they have already been introduced to the critical vocabulary necessary for thinking about who and what is left out of a field like eighteenth-century British literature. My teaching invites students to think with me—with us—about the dis/function of disciplinary boundaries and why moving toward decolonial academic practices requires more than simply adding writers of color to our syllabi.2 Expanding our canons is crucial, but this can quickly amount to tokenism if we do not also create opportunities for students to understand [End Page 151] why—beyond empty neoliberal rhetorics of diversity and inclusion—these expansions matter. As Achille Mbembe has argued, decolonial efforts must reach beyond content knowledge, to the very notion of knowledge itself, because Western epistemic traditions are traditions that claim detachment of the known from the knower. … They are traditions in which the knowing subject is enclosed in itself and peeks out at a world of objects and produces supposedly objective knowledge of those objects. The knowing subject is thus able to know the world without being part of that world and he or she is by all accounts able to produce knowledge that is supposed to be universal and independent of context.3 A decolonial teaching practice requires us to acknowledge our necessarily subjective, always partial, inherently biased position in the world. Further, it necessitates laying bare the methods by which we arrive at certain types of knowledge. To that end, I ask students to engage with the raw materials that, in many Western educational contexts, continue to be regarded as foundational for understanding historical periods: I send them into archives. In my introductory survey of eighteenth-century British literature, students complete a semester-long research project in which they use physical or digital archives (such as Eighteenth Century Collections Online [ECCO] or the open-access Internet Archive) to curate their own online collections around topics of their choosing. Toward the end of the semester, they share their projects, and we spend the last few weeks of the course discussing whether and how their findings reframe the primary and secondary materials that we had been reading together all semester. What inevitably emerges is a conversation about how lack of representation at the scholarly level trickles down into broader cultural perceptions and value patterns. Producing these projects in the form of a website underscores the stakes of this type of inquiry: publishing their work online makes students active participants in framing how anyone with an Internet connection can potentially encounter a long-whitewashed literary past. The expectation is not that students will make some groundbreaking discovery, though many do begin their research hoping for such a find. Most hit the obvious road blocks and have to recalibrate. But instead of completely changing their plans, I ask them to sit with the obstacles and find new ways into their original research questions. And this is actually the lesson: at some point, almost all students find themselves grappling with the ideologies that underwrite cultural preservation and academic knowledge production. Ultimately, my goal is to encourage students to think about how [End Page 152] such seemingly neutral concepts as "knowledge" and "history" function as instruments of larger power structures that can be interrogated and transformed.4 I invite students to become aware of how historical knowledges are constructed by engaging and, if necessary, questioning...

Using Design Interventions to Develop Communication Solutions for Integrated Pest Management

Abstract Iowa State University’s (ISU) Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program partnered with the ISU College of Design (COD) to use Design Thinking and other practical design methodologies and theories to identify and develop approaches to address IPM extension and communication issues. ISU IPM met with agriculture industry, program colleagues, and ISU COD faculty to discuss IPM-related needs in agriculture and to determine the program’s primary challenges. ISU COD faculty developed a two-semester course for undergraduate students, allocating various resources to solve these challenges. Undergraduates in the course, as the primary agents and problem solvers, developed various strategies the IPM program and its colleagues could implement. A model of interdisciplinary collaboration was developed, where design and science may function as equal partners in a design education setting. In our collaboration, the partners bought into a design-led process-based methodology that began with identifying IPM communication needs. This project resulted in unique design interventions to communicate IPM to stakeholders and the public, as well as created a model for interdisciplinary cooperation that can be exported to fields outside of agriculture and IPM.

State-of-the-Art Reformation of Web Programming Course Curriculum in Digital Bangladesh

For last 15 years universities around the world are continuously developing effective curricula for Web Engineering in order to create good opportunities for graduates to cope up with IT-Software industries. From this study we will show the gap between the skill requirements of IT-Software industries and universities’ web course curricula. Also, we will provide a balanced and structured web course curriculum for any universities. Nowadays, there is a rapid development in web-based applications everywhere but most of our students are late bloomer in programming. So, to ease their difficulties in web sector we need a balanced web curriculum and effective teaching method. By this curriculum one can achieve an overall idea and a minimum view of web engineering which can be beneficial for them in further Web development. Students get a little knowledge in their university on Web Engineering because of the vastness of the contents and the small duration of semester. Our two-semester web course curricula will help them to overcome this problem. Two-semester web course curricula have a huge impact on achieving the minimum required skill in web development field in IT-Software industries. It will help to obtain most of the area of web related content also it will increase problem solving skill and versatile knowledge of web engineering in undergraduate life.